Chiral amines are an important class of organic compounds which can be used as resolving reagents, chiral auxiliaries, and intermediates in the synthesis of a variety of biologically active molecules. Asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation potentially provides a very efficient and convenient route to chiral amines; however, so far only limited success has been achieved. The well known chiral diphosphine ligands, such as, DIOP (J. Organomet. Chem. 1975, 90, 353) and its derivatives (J. Organomet. Chem. 1976, 114, 325), PHELLANPHOS and NOPAPHOS (Nouv. J. Chim. 1981, 5, 15), were used as chiral ligands in the asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of .alpha.-phenylenamide. However, the enantiomeric excess (e.e.) values of the products were quite low. Recently, DUPHOS and BPE ligands (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 5142) have been reported to be effective in the hydrogenation of arylenamides leading to high enantioselectivities (&gt;90% e.e.). Unfortunately, with these catalysts the rate of reaction was too slow and the required reaction time was long.